Controlled fusion power generation will open the door to abundant and clean energy sources. This topic has attracted significant research efforts in the United States and the world. The reported approaches are typically based on conversion of fusion energy to thermal energy then to electric energy.
In an alternative approach described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,611,106 (the '106 patent), entitled “Controlled fusion in a field reversed configuration and direct energy conversion,” which is incorporated herein by reference, controlled fusion energy, carried by charged particle beams in the form of momentum, can be converted directly to electricity by decelerating the charged particles using a quadrupole inverse cyclotron converter (ICC). Thus, higher energy conversion is expected. A key technology is needed that extracts the energy from the ICC and injects it to the utility grid.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a power electronic circuit used to decelerate the plasma particles, extract the energy from the deceleration action, convert the plasma energy directly to electric energy and send the electricity to the power grid.